System

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

Catalog grade guidance: K–5 — Short children’s lyric; good for early memorization and reading aloud.

10 content lines · 57 words · Est. recitation about 35 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #136.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

System

  Every night my prayers I say,
  And get my dinner every day;
  And every day that I've been good,
  I get an orange after food.

  The child that is not clean and neat,
  With lots of toys and things to eat,
  He is a naughty child, I'm sure--
  Or else his dear papa is poor.


                                            XX